From our handheld devices to the technology that is our cars, to the way we live more healthy and productive lives, nanotechnology is revolutionizing the world. It isn’t just science fiction anymore, the future is now, and we are apart of the cosmic digital revolution that seems to be advancing quicker than most of us can keep up. The publication Popular Mechanics claims that nanotechnology could be the most significant scientific achievement of this century. But it was not until 1981 that Professor Norio Taniguchi created the term “nanotechnology” to describe this form of science. He developed the name after the creation of the scanning tunneling microscope that allowed atoms to be seen. Once the ability to see the atom was developed, progress in nanotechnology began to accelerate. Those are big words, so let’s dig in to understand how this technology plays out in our daily lives and learn of ways it has already been implemented, maybe even unknown to us.
What is Nano?
Nano is short for nanotechnology, which is the science that manipulates molecules and atoms to manufacture micro-scale products. Nano refers to something tiny. Just to put things in proper perspective, a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter or one-millionth of a millimeter, the term is used to express the dimension at an atomic scale, a nanometer is approximately 100,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. With that said, it is one of the most exciting and fasting moving scientific areas today,.
Nanotechnology In Phones
Remember the first time you heard of a device that you could hold in your hand that helps over ten thousand songs? That amazing device of coarse is the first generation Apple iPod. Now with that same technology morphed into our phones, that tech that magically smashes WAV and MP3 files down to microscopic traces of what they were before is nanotechnology. Now we even expect our phones to hold thousands of songs and videos without thinking twice.
Nanotechnology In Cars
Today’s engineers are finding a wide variety of ways to manipulate the properties that are currently used to make cars. Through the advancements in nanotechnology, engineers are making stronger windshields, reductions in the total weight of vehicles, better fuel cells, better batteries, and even better and more efficient catalytic converters. Nanotechnology showed improved mechanical properties of nano-structured materials. These materials have higher hardness, expanded breaking quality at low temperatures, or super-elasticity at higher temperatures. This has already saved lives and will continue to save many more as the technology is perfected.
Nanotechnology In Food
Nano-encapsulation can make better tastes and textures. Research is being led to create nano-capsules containing nutrients. These nutrients would be discharged when nano-sensors recognize a nutrient inadequacy in your body. Essentially this examination could bring about a super nutrient stockpiling framework in your body that conveys the vitamins you need when you need them. “Intelligent” nourishments are being built up that would enable you to pick the ideal flavor and shading. Nano-capsules that contain flavor or shading enhancers are installed in the nourishment; latent until a ravenous purchaser triggers them. The strategy hasn’t been distributed, so it will be fascinating to perceive how this specific stunt is practiced.
Nanotechnology In Anti-Microbial RESISTANCE
“Anti-Microbial Resistance has been called one of the world’s most important general medical issues,” says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC’s) site. It happens when microorganisms figure out how to dodge and endure the impacts of anti-toxins. Regardless of whether just a modest number do this, the ones that do can duplicate, prompting a multitude of anti-infection safe microscopic organisms that turns out to be increasingly more hard to treat. One prominent case of this is Lyme sickness, a bacterial disease transmitted by ticks that produce side effects like migraine, fever, weakness, and frequently a pinpoint center skin rash, and whenever left untreated can have genuine, deep-rooted neurological reactions.
Nanotechnology In Supplements
The main advantage of nano supplements is mainly its higher percentage of absorption of the active substance. Since lysosomes can assimilate nutrients by alternative metabolic pathways, causing better absorption. However, these nano-spheres protect the active substance of gastric juices from the stomach by preventing their degradation. They are also able to increase their absorption in the intestine. Many prevalent health compounds need to be nano-sized for proper absorption. Curcumin from turmeric, CBD from the cannabis plant, and Glutathione, a powerful antioxidant, are just a few that Mark McCool, founder of Maxvera stated are being nano-sized on a mass commercial level in their nano laboratory.
Nanotechnology In War
With such a significant number of our men and women in our Armed Forces executed or harmed by the side of the road bombs and IEDs over the past half-decade, serious research has been committed to improving the protective body layer worn by troops sent into mischief’s way. The task even has official authorization and a perfect abbreviation: NNI, the National Nanotechnology Initiative. A $15 million agreement granted to the University of Dayton Research Institute by the U.S. Armed force’s Research Laboratory’s Survivability Branch is subsidizing the improvement of nanoparticle reinforcement to secure fighters as well as the vehicles they ride in. By mixing nanoparticles into fired materials utilized in a protective layer, both porosity and essential quality are expanded. It is believed that the improved defensive layer is culminated and presented as quickly as time permits. Staying with military issues, the Israeli Defense Forces are drawing on the most recent achievements in nanotechnology to refresh their weapons. One remarkable application is referred to conversationally as the Bionic Hornet. No greater than a normal wasp, the flying gadget is intended to search out, follow, and even chose adversaries. This is a technology Tony Stark would be proud of.
In closing, this technology is already here and becoming more and more prevalent in the years to come. Whether you are shopping for food, taking your favorite multivitamin every morning, or your driving to work in your car, you are using nano-products.
